by Rev. Dr. Christos Christakis | Ελληνικά

In the fall of 2015, a small and unassuming publication was introduced in London, England with the title The Buffalo Statement: In the Image and likeness of God – A Hope-Filled Anthropology. It was a text that was agreed in Buffalo, NY earlier that year by a group of official representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion who make up the International Commission for Anglican–Orthodox Theological Dialogue (ICAOTD). This was  the fourth such document  by the ICAOTD. 

Anglicans held in the past a unique place in the eyes of Orthodox Christians. They stood between Roman Catholics and Protestants as a more sympathetic counterpart. For the Orthodox, Anglicans did not carry with them the bitter memories of the Crusades, the Great Schism, the Papacy, and the rest. On the other hand, they also had not rejected the entire Tradition of the first millennium like the rest of the Protestants. Many Orthodox in the United States still remember the advice of their bishops earlier on the 20th century allowing them to attend an Episcopalian Church when there was not an  Orthodox Church nearby.